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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 01/09/2003 5:35:46 AM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. We hope to provide an ongoing source of information about issues and problems that are specific to Veterans and resources that are available to Veterans and their families. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.
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On the swampy grounds of the Villere Plantation, hundreds of weary British soldiers are huddled around campfires trying to keep warm. The past two days have been exhausting for this advance party under the command of Major General John Keane and Colonel William Thornton. They have had to row themselves, along with tons of guns and equipment, thirty miles from their camp on Pine Island, and up the sluggish Bayou Bienvenu. In addition to this, numerous relays occur in dragging the provisions to camp across two miles of nearly impassable swamps and thick cypress forests. To the left of the British, the Mississippi is covered in a thick evening fog. It is so thick that the British patrols do not see the American schooner Carolina before it is too late and it sends roundshot flying into the camp. Keane and Thornton are taken completely by surprise, but they scramble to get the men into fighting order. Jumping from the schooner, Jackson’s men storm the riverbank and push toward the camp. For nearly an hour, the British regulars struggle fiercely with Jackson’s impromptu brigade of regulars, militia and dozens Choctaw warriors. The sides are equally matched with about 2000 men, but Jackson finds that he won’t be able to maintain order long among his militia who are facing seasoned British soldiers. His begins to falter and he pulls back. As he is withdrawing, the British in pursuit are distracted by another attack on their left flank. Using local planters as guides, General John Coffee has slipped through the woods and around to the British far-right. His Tennessee riflemen dismount their horses and descend on Thornton’s men. This British line is broken, but the experienced soldiers shield their officers and meet the riflemen head-on in small groups.  A close pitched battle in the dark ensues, as knives, swords, fists and gun butt’s are used to inflict damage. British captain George Gleig later remembered that, “many a sword which till tonight had not drunk blood, became in a few minutes crimson enough.” Finally, Thornton has managed to form up a line and drive Coffee’s men back into the woods where they retire to meet up with Jackson. The Americans withdraw leaving 45 British dead and another 170 wounded. Jackson’s men don’t fare much better, but the attack has consequences that would eventually work in favour of the Americans. The intensity of Jackson’s raid leads John Keane to believe that he had been attacked by a force more than twice that of his own. In a decision that would prove costly for the British, the apprehensive Keane decides he will not advance immediately on New Orleans. Instead, he will concentrate on getting more troops and equipment ashore, and hope General Pakenham’s reinforcements will arrive soon. The shocking news of Major General Ross’s death at Baltimore in mid-September, reached England a month later. In addition to the British Army losing a bright young commander, his death put the planned New Orleans campaign in jeopardy. A replacement for its overall command had to found. It was quickly decided that Major General Edward Pakenham would fill the position. There were misgivings about the appointment; Pakenham, though a brave and intelligent officer, had no experience commanding large operations. Before these objections could be addressed, however, he was already sailing to Jamaica for his rendez-vous with Alexander Cochrane.  Admiral Cochrane decided not to wait for Pakenham, and thought it better to leave with his own force, as well as that of John Keane's, to commence preparations off the Gulf Coast. Cochrane had spent most of November mulling over which of New Orleans' many access points he would penetrate. Thanks to his network of well paid informants, Cochrane knew that the Americans had only five small gunboats on Lake Borgne and that otherwise it was not fortified. Knowing that his navy could easily take care of these, his main concern would be the efficient transfer of men and supplies across the lake (which was too shallow for his large warships), up one of the many bayous and over the swampy terrain leading to the city. If there was strict and speedy execution of the plan, he felt it would work. Having been informed that Jackson hadn't yet fortified the city, Cochrane's fleet left Jamaica on November 27, 1814, hoping to catch Jackson off-guard. Cochrane reached the entrance to Lake Borgne two weeks later and wasted no time in sending a flotilla of 45 boats, generously laden with cannon, out to meet the American gunships. After a day and a half of rowing across the windless lake, British Captain Lockyer's men cornered the Americans. After a fierce battle, the British added five gunboats to their fleet and Cochrane began scouting out a base of operations. It was finally decided that Pine Island, at the lake's north end, would be the staging area. Over four cold and wet days, the British make several trips relaying men and equipment from the warships at the lake's entrance 30 miles across the water to Pine Island.  During this period the British did their best to assess the American state of affairs. Andrew Jackson sent out a truce party to inquire into the Americans captured after the lake battle, and Cochrane, dispensing of any formalities, drilled the emissaries as to the strength of the U.S. forces at New Orleans. Undoubtedly hoping to scare the British, one of the party put them at over 15,000. Cochrane didn't believe them, but it was all he could get from the Americans. More promising developments however, were soon reported. Advance scouts had located a village of Spanish fishermen just inside the Bayou Bienvenu. They were happy to reveal what they knew of American movements in the area, and which of the waterways leading inland were undisturbed by defensive measures. As soon as the scouts confirmed that the Villere Canal off the Bienvenu led to the lightly garrisoned Villere Plantation, Cochrane ordered Keane to prepare an advance force to leave from Pine Island. The boats could only accommodate about 2000 men at a time but the transport progressed steadily across the lake and up the sluggish bayou despite cold and darkness. The British even captured some American pickets posted in the fishing village. Much to Keane's concern, when questioned, they also estimated the U.S. forces around New Orleans to be 15,000. Undaunted, Keane moved his men up the Villere Canal hoping that Pakenham would soon make an appearance with his and General Lambert's reinforcements. On December 23, 1814, the British captured another small American advance party quartered at the Villere Plantation. The commander of these Americans was so embarrasses of his failure to secure the area that he made a desperate, but successful, attempt to escape in order to inform Jackson of the proximity of the British.  Keane's second-in-command, the aggressive Colonel Thornton, insisted that a immediate advance on the city would be the only way to catch the Americans by surprise. Keane, more cautious by nature, having only two thousand men and no artillery, decided to wait for the reinforcements which were to arrive the next day. This hesitation by the British would soon undermine their plans. The British operation took a turn for the worse on the evening of December 23, when they were attacked by the Americans. Although they eventually drove them off, the incident blackened the mood of the exasperated British regulars even more. Pakenham finally arrived on Christmas day with more reinforcements and his men began the arduous task of shifting the heavy artillery 75 miles from Pine Island to the swampy Villere Plantation. Pakenham did little in the way of reconnaissance and three days later, the British advance ran straight into a strong American defensive line, no more than a mile and a half away. With grueling effort and determination, the British scattered their guns along a line only 1000 yards from Jackson's position. On January 1, 1815, the British commenced a cannonade hoping to weaken the enormous breastwork behind which the Americans sheltered. Without proper blocks to secure the huge guns, the British could not fire with accuracy and the American artillery finally drove them back. Pakenham had come too far to turn back now. He set about devising a new plan, which his men knew would involve a perilous frontal assault on the American line. Early Evening January 7, 1815 Major General Edward Pakenham is greatly disturbed with the beating his artillery has taken from the American guns. The cannon protecting Jackson's line have proven far more effective than his own, throughout the numerous exchanges over the past few days. Of greater concern is the battery of guns Jackson has placed on the west side of the Mississippi River, which are positioned to fire directly into a British advance on the American line. But Pakenham is confident that the plan he and his officers have put into motion will solve this problem, and Jackson's men will soon be on the run. Pakenham's plan is a brilliant, in theory. He has ordered his men to extend the Villere Canal by breaking through the levee along the riverbank so that it meets the Mississippi. This way, the British can move by water all the way from the Bayou Bienvenu to the river. Under the cover of darkness, this first wave of 1500 will land on the west bank of the river and seize the American guns. After this is accomplished, the cannon can then be turned on the Americans and used to support the 5000-strong assault on Jackson's line by the main army who will have moved forward, obscured by the morning fog.  The intrepid Colonel Thornton, who will lead the early morning attack on the west bank, oversees the slow process of loading equipment onto his shallow boats. Due to long days of backbreaking labour by the regulars, there are now over forty vessels assembled in the new portion of the canal. Most of the men have had no sleep in the past days. The cold and damp are taking their toll as sickness creeps through the camp. They have been here too long; like Thornton, a number of the men believe they missed a chance to seize New Orleans after they first took the Villere Plantation. Only a short distance away, also suffering from a lingering fever, Andrew Jackson surveys his defenses and wonders if they will be enough to stop a massive, well-trained British Army. For the past twelve days the Americans have been working to fortify this position along the north side of the Rodriguez Canal. Jackson has commandeered as many as 900 black slaves from local plantations to construct the massive earthen breastwork that runs 1000 yards from the dense swampy forest to the banks of the Mississippi. These same men are now completing a second line of defense a mile and a half back in case the Americans have to retreat. Anchored on the great river to Jackson's right rest the big vessels, the Carolina and the Louisiana, recently outfitted as ships of war. Both have been useful in keeping the British active dodging their cannonballs over the past few days. Having caught wind of a possible British attack on the batteries on the river's west bank, Jackson has had to transfer cannon from the Louisiana, along with an additional 400 militia under General David B. Morgan, to strengthen that position. Even this small drain of men away from Jackson's main line makes him anxious. Jackson's greatest fear over is whether or not he has enough men to stop the British. Reports about their numbers have been high, perhaps as many as 12,000. The American general still harbours worries about the British invading the city from the north, so he has had to move men to the banks Lake Pontchartrain to prevent a possible disaster. This has left him with less than 4000 men lining the Rodriguez Canal, many of them sparsely trained and poorly armed volunteers. Shivering on this damp patch of Louisiana terrain, neither army has any way of knowing that a treaty of peace was finalized two weeks earlier in the quiet Chartreux convent in Ghent, Belgium. Barely two months ago, the British government was so sure of Pakenham's success at New Orleans that they sent him off with a document which officially recognizes him as Louisiana's governor, and lists the members of the joint British-Spanish civil government that would be set up in that territory. Edward Pakenham has no idea that the sunset he watches melt into the Mississippi, will be his last.
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The fighting in Louisiana was really a series of battles for New Orleans, lasting from December 1814 through January 1815. On the Chalmette battleground , just below the city, a diverse force of soldiers, sailors, and militia, including Indians and African Americans, defeated Britain's finest white and black troops drawn from Europe and the West Indies.
The American victory in the Gulf region forced the British to recognize United States claims to Louisiana and West Florida and to ratify the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war. The Battle of New Orleans also marked the state's political incorporation into the Union.
Britain sent between 11,000 and 14,450 troops under the command of Major General Sir Edward Pakenham to fight in the Louisiana campaign. These included army and navy men fresh from campaigns fought against Napoleon in Europe, as well as veterans of other theaters in the War of 1812. Vice-Admiral Alexander Cochrane had charge of the British navy in American waters and directed naval skirmishes in the gulf.
Among the British forces were the First and Fifth West India Regiments, made up of about one thousand black soldiers from Jamaica, Barbados, and the Bahamas. Some of these units recruited and trained American slaves who escaped to British lines, attracted by the promise of freedom.
United States forces at the time of the Battle of New Orleans were much smaller--somewhere between 3,500 and 5,000. This detachment was composed of United States army troops; Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana militia; Baratarian pirates; Choctaw warriors; and free black soldiers.
Major General Andrew Jackson, commander of the Seventh Military District, led United States forces in the Gulf campaign against Britain. An ardent expansionist and charismatic leader, Jackson inspired his men and the local populace to fight and defeat the British.
General Jackson established his base of operations in New Orleans in late November 1814 to concentrate United States military efforts on the Mississippi River after discovering that British Vice-Admiral Cochrane intended to direct the Gulf Coast campaign against New Orleans. Distrustful of Jackson at first, citizens of New Orleans formed committees of public safety to protect their interests; they feared that Jackson would burn the city rather than surrender it.
The British had many potential routes in attacking New Orleans from their base in Jamaica. They ultimately chose to approach the city from the east by way of Lake Borgne and Bayou Bienvenu, which brought them within a mile of the Mississippi
General Jackson established his base of operations in New Orleans in late November 1814 to concentrate United States military efforts on the Mississippi River after discovering that British Vice-Admiral Cochrane intended to direct the Gulf Coast campaign against New Orleans. Distrustful of Jackson at first, citizens of New Orleans formed committees of public safety to protect their interests; they feared that Jackson would burn the city rather than surrender it.
The British had many potential routes in attacking New Orleans from their base in Jamaica. They ultimately chose to approach the city from the east by way of Lake Borgne and Bayou Bienvenu, which brought them within a mile of the Mississippi
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Jordan Noble was a free black drummer famous for beating the long roll at the Battle of New Orleans. Born in 1800 in Georgia, Noble came to New Orleans in 1811 and joined the United States army one year later. He participated in several engagements of the Louisiana campaign. At the Battle of New Orleans, he opened with reveille and closed with taps. He later served as a drummer in the Mexican War of 1846-1848 and rallied New Orleans free men of color to form militia companies on behalf of the Confederacy at the outbreak of the Civil War.
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<== Mash ThisI don't have a sound card at work so I don't know if this works. Keeping fingers crossed.
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A rough-hewn military hero, he was regarded by many as the symbol and spokesman of the common man. Jackson entered the WHITE HOUSE in 1829 after winning the second of two vigorously fought ELECTION campaigns. Through his forceful personality, he restructured the office of the president and helped shape the DEMOCRATIC PARTY as the prototype of the modern political organization. Less educated and less schooled in government than many of his political opponents, Jackson had leaped to national fame in the War of 1812 as the hero of the Battle of New Orleans and had captured the imagination and dedicated loyalty of a vast segment of the American population. He was widely acclaimed as the symbol of what the new American thought himself to be--a self-made man, son of the frontier, endowed with virtue and God-given strength because of his closeness to nature, and possessed of indomitable will and moral courage. The nation found its old way of life being reshaped by the impact of the Industrial Revolution, the flood of settlers into the West, the rise of great urban centers, and dramatic advances in transportation. Old political, social and economic folkways were annihilated by these fundamental changes, and the old leadership seemed unequal to the task of mastering these vast new forces, which promised riches and political advancement to the many instead of the few. The traditional, almost professional, politician now appeared impotent and aristocratic, determined to continue men in the accustomed condition of their lives and to maintain political and economic power in the hands of those who had enjoyed it in the past. Thousands of Americans sought a leader who would admit all men to the exciting contest for the good things of life. They turned to the "Hero of New Orleans." The results of the election of 1824 gave credibility to the idea that Jackson was indeed the champion of a popular majority besieged by selfish and corrupt interests. In such fashion was born the concept of Jacksonian Democracy, which Jackson brought to fulfillment with his election as president in 1828 and which continued to be the dominant issue in American political life through his two administrations and until his death in 1845. Jackson's administrations were highlighted by the frustration of sectional attempts to weaken the central government by state nullification of federal law, and by the President's confrontation with the Bank of the United States. In a positive sense Jackson profoundly affected the development of the U.S. presidency. He concentrated power in that office through wide use of the veto and through his insistence that the chief executive alone represented the will of the whole nation. Committing presidential power to the protection of the people against the threat of constantly expanding governmental authority and corrupt private interests was a traditional Jeffersonian principle. In carrying it out, Jackson took what was for his period an advanced position on civil equality and thus eventually came to be regarded as an equal to JEFFERSON as a founder of the Democratic party ideology. Early Life Andrew Jackson was born at a settlement on the banks of Crawford's Branch of Waxhaw Creek in South Carolina on March 15, 1767, the third son of immigrant parents from northern Ireland, Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth Hutchinson. His father died a few days before Andrew's birth. Bereft of his mother and two brothers by sickness during the American Revolution, in which he had himself served as a mounted courier when he was 13 years old, Jackson spent the postwar years in North Carolina. There he devoted himself to legal studies and was admitted to the bar at the age of 20. Marriage The next year, 1788, he followed the Cumberland Road to the rude frontier settlement of Nashville, carrying with him an appointment as public prosecutor of the western district of North Carolina. Here he prospered, dabbling in his first land and slave speculations, and here he met Rachel Donelson Robards, who was to be the consuming passion of his life. The daughter of Jackson's landlady, she was also the unhappy wife of the coarse and violently jealous Capt. Lewis Robards, whose temper had driven her to the refuge of her mother's house. Immediately smitten, Jackson devoted himself to her protection, and they were married in 1791 in the false, but honest, belief that Captain Robards had been granted a legal divorce by the Virginia legislature. Actually, Robards did not have the marriage dissolved until 1793, and it was news of this valid divorce that revealed to Jackson and Rachel the illegality of their relationship. Stunned, they promptly remarried in January 1794, but Robards and later enemies of Jackson were wont to charge him with having stolen another man's wife and, worse, having lived with her in adultery from 1791 to 1794. They did so at their peril, for the most oblique hint at any lack of virtue on the part of Rachel was sufficient to spur Jackson to violent action with horsewhip or dueling pistol. The most famous of his encounters of this sort was the duel in which he killed Charles Dickinson, a fellow Nashville lawyer, in 1806. This deed gave wide fame to Jackson's iron will and determination but also provided his enemies with the claim that he took pleasure in violence and brutality. Congressman and Judge The quiet effectiveness of Jackson's initial political experience as a member of the Tennessee constitutional convention of 1796 brought him election that year as the state's first representative in CONGRESS. Then his strong anti-British sentiments put him in opposition to the WASHINGTON administration. An alliance with William Blount, U.S. senator from Tennessee, against the Tennessee faction led by Gov. John Sevier resulted in Jackson's rise to the U.S. Senate in 1797, but personal financial difficulties led him to resign that post in April 1798. Appointment to the superior court of Tennessee in September 1798 relieved his economic situation and soon brought him respect as a jurist whose opinions, though unsophisticated, reflected his often expressed charge to the jury: "Do what is right between these parties. That is what the law always means." Jackson's judicial career lasted until 1804. It was a placid and pleasant period in his life, during which he expanded his holdings and achieved recognition, in 1802, as the new major general of the Tennessee militia. Then, having retired from the bench, he dedicated himself to development of a new home at the Hermitage, a few miles northeast of Nashville, where the uncertainties of cotton growing were partly forgotten in the joys thoroughbred horses. Here he received Aaron BURR as his guest in 1805, deceived like so many others into believing that the adventurer was engaged in a simple project to seize Spain's Mexican possessions. Jackson soon became suspicious of Burr's actions, but in later years he was to reaffirm his faith that Burr was a misunderstood patriot beset by the pursuing enmity of Thomas Jefferson. Military Career Indignant at what he identified as cowardly submission to Britain in Jefferson's and Madison's foreign policy, Jackson rejoiced in the eruption of war in 1812 and eagerly offered his services for invasions of Canada or Florida. But his past activities had hardly endeared Jackson to the "Virginia Dynasty," and he had to be content with a commission as major general of U.S. volunteers, ordered to lead a force to Natchez, Miss., in support of Gen. James Wilkinson. Jackson's command was soon disbanded as useless, without once having seen its foe, but his political adversaries had unwittingly given Jackson yet another hold on fame, for his tough efficiency in the grueling march back to Tennessee won for him the appellation "Old Hickory." The Creek Indian massacre of settlers at Fort Mims, Mississippi Territory, in September 1813 brought Jackson back into the field. Despite serious problems of supply and a mutinous spirit among his militia troops, he crushed the Creeks in a series of engagements that culminated in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend on March 17, 1814. On May 1 he was commissioned a major general in the regular army with command of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Perceiving the danger of a British move against New Orleans after a strike along the Gulf Coast, he wrecked any such plan by a decisive repulse of an attack on Mobile, Ala., in September. By November he had driven the enemy from its position in Pensacola, Fla., and was free to journey to New Orleans to inspect the defenses of that key to the Mississippi. Battle of New Orleans He arrived none too soon, for in mid-December the British anchored their fleet in Mississippi Sound and deposited their troops on the banks of the Mississippi some 10 miles (16 km) below New Orleans. From their position on the Plains of Chalmette they launched a series of strikes against the city. Jackson countered with a polyglot mixture of Louisiana militia, Tennessee and Kentucky riflemen, and Baratarian pirates. The campaign culminated in the British frontal assault on Jackson's lines on Jan. 8, 1815, in which the attackers were cut down by concentrated rifle and cannon fire with losses of almost 2,000 dead and injured. American casualties were 6 killed and 10 wounded. The Battle of New Orleans was the last campaign of the War of 1812, actually fought after the signing of the Peace of Ghent on Dec. 24, 1814. There is no merit, however, in the frequent assertion that Jackson's great victory was won after the war was over, for the Ghent treaty specifically called for continued hostilities until ratification by both governments, which was not effected until February 1815. After so many distressing months of failure in a war in which the enemy had burned and sacked the federal capital and which had led disaffected citizens to question the value of the Union itself, Jackson's victory at New Orleans seemed to wipe away the nation's memories of incompetent leadership. Overnight, Old Hickory was transfigured into a symbol of distinctive American strengths and virtues, and his path was turned inevitably toward the White House. But for the moment the Virginia Dynasty still commanded, and Jackson retired with his honors to his beloved Hermitage. |
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When the British landed Jackson, who swore they would not spend a night on American soil, did a very ungentlemanly thing - attacked them at night, something they did not know how to defend against. The British only fought one particular way, conventional battlefield strategy of the time. Jackson took advantage of this. The British also had inordinate bad luck and suffered a series of blunders. For example, boats with part of the force and weaponry were supposed to be floated up the Mississippi but were caught on swampy ground by the tides. When the two armies finally faced up the British artillery fired but the recoil pushed the naval style guns (with small, deck wheels) backward to fire into the sky. Many birds were killed! The Americans were outnumbered but stood and fired at the British. These guys came from where one shot counted - it meant dinner! They also had the bad manners to shoot the British officers who were easily identified by their uniforms and without whom the British Infantry was lost. When the smoke cleared there were 2,000 British dead or wounded and just 13 Americans - and it all happened in the time that it just took you to read about it! The British and Americans have been allies ever since. |
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Weapons played a big role in the Revolutionary War. Without weapons, there probably couldn’t be a war. You can’t win a war without weapons. There were many different kinds of weapons used in the war. But no matter what kind of weapons you have, they would all do the same thing, hurt. You can’t win a war without hurting the enemy. One of the most commonly used weapons in the Revolution was the Musket. The musket was a big rifle size weapon with a very large bullet and barrel. Because of this, the Musket was very clumsy. The bullet was sphere shaped, and is about .71 mm in size. Now that may seem small, but it’s really big compared to a modern pistol at about .22 mm. The Musket’s range and aim was very, very poor. The bullet was pushed out of the gun with great force, but not with much direction. In modern rifles, the sphere bullet is pushed and rolled out of the gun in a spiraling motion. This gives the rifle a strait shot hitting its target. It’s like a football, if you pick up an oversized football and throw it strait forward with no spiral like a shot-put, it won’t go very far and you probably won’t hit your target. This was how the Musket was. But if you throw the football forward with a nice spiral, like the modern rifle, it goes farther and you’ll probably hit what you’re aiming for. The Musket became a real pain on the battle field. First off, it could barely hit anything, and second, it took a long time to reload. First, the soldier must remove the ramrod. Then he must insert the paper cartridge of gun powder into the barrel. Then he must pack it in with the ramrod, insert the bullet, pack that in, and put the ramrod back into it’s holder. The whole process took about a minute and a half, and that was a long time on a battle field. Another frustration by the soldiers was fighting on rainy days. Often when the flint scrapes the metal and created a spark, the rain prevented the spark from burning the gun powder. As a result, more people were killed by bayonets than by gunfire. The Musket was very simple when it came to how it worked. Sticking up near the top of the gun was a cock. The cock contained two clamps that held in a piece of flint. When the trigger was pulled, it jerked the cock forward scraping the flint against a piece of steel creating a spark. The spark caught the gun powder on fire and causes it to explode. This explosion then pushed the bullet out of the gun. The whole process takes about .1 ( one tenth)of a second.
Another kind of weapon used in the Revolutionary war is the pistol. Pistols were mostly used as personal weapons. Many officers and other commanding men would carry pistols. Pistols were very small, most about the size of a banana. Like the Musket, pistols have poor range and poor accuracy. The pistol was usually a .50 caliber gun. That was very big compared to modern guns, and it was much more clumsy. The pistol was probably the one gun with the least range. You would probably have to stand no farther that fifteen feet away to hit something. If you stood any farther than that, you probably wouldn’t hit your target. Like the musket, the pistol contained a sphere shaped bullet and is pushed out like that of a musket. That means that like the Musket, a pistols aim is very poor.
Probably the most powerful weapon used in the war, was the cannon. A cannon shot a solid iron projectile at very high speed. The cannon was about 2-3 meters long ( variable size ) and some weighed over a ton. Cannons were used in many field battles during the Revolutionary war. A field piece cannon was usually used in an open field battle. A field piece had a built in carriage so the cannon could be easily moved with horses. Most field pieces used a six-pound cannon ball. Cannons were also used on ships of war. Every ship was equipped with at least two cannons. Many boats used the thirty-two-pound cannons like the one in the diagram. Others liked to have a farther range with lighter cannon balls. The cannons on ships varied from ship to ship. Cannons also were used as defense in a fort. They were good at fending off invading troops and sometimes even ships. The thirty-two-pound cannon was usually used to defend forts because it brought a big punch to soldiers.
The last kind of weapon used in the war was the saber. The saber was mostly used by officers and generals. The saber’s main purpose was to basically direct troops in a land battle. Sometimes they would use their sabers during a bayonet charge to stab enemy troops. Most generals didn’t do that however, because they were to be behind their attacking army directing it, not attacking with it. But officers do sometimes do that, so it’s good that they carry a saber. Weapons were very important to the Revolutionary War. Without weapons, there would be no war. You can’t fight without weapons. Weapons were very important in the Revolutionary War, and are important to modern wars. Weapons are the key to winning wars. |
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Preparing for War
 A U.S. soldier of the 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, of the 82nd Airborne fires an anti-tank rocket against a disuse tank during a live-fire training Thursday, Jan. 9, 2003 at a firing range near the U.S. base in Kandahar, Afghanistan  U.S. soldiers of the 82nd Airborne's 3rd Platoon Bravo Company, rush to their position during a live fire training Thursday, Jan. 9, 2003 at a firing range near the U.S. base in Kandahar, Afghanistan  U.S. soldiers of the 82nd Airborne's 3rd Platoon Bravo Company advance to a fictitious enemy position during a live fire training Thursday, Jan. 9, 2003 at a firing range near the U.S. base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Kandahar was the stronghold of the Taliban, the rigorously Islamic regime that was ousted from power in late 2001 by a U.S.-led military coalition. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)  U.S. soldiers of the 82nd Airborne's 3rd Platoon Bravo Company move into a position during a live fire training Thursday, Jan. 9, 2003 at a firing range near the U.S. base in Kandahar, Afghanistan  U.S. soldiers of the 82nd Airborne's 3rd Platoon Bravo Company take position behind a wall during a live fire training Thursday, Jan. 9, 2003 at a firing range near the U.S. base in Kandahar, Afghanistan  The Air Force has begun sending dozens of B-1B bombers and fighter aircraft to the Gulf region in a surge of U.S. arms and combat troops to prepare for possible war with Iraq, defense officials said on January 9, 2003. The warplanes join thousands of Army and Marine Corps combat troops flowing to the Gulf in a new year's surge that will more than double the 60,000 U.S. military personnel now stationed at bases in Kuwait and aircraft carrier battle groups. A pair of Air Force B-1B bombers is seen in formation flight in this undated file photo. Photo by Usaf/Reuters  U.S. Army Sgt. Carlos Hernandez from Georgia, of the 2nd brigade, 3rd infantry division, sits atop an Abrams tank at sunset at Camp New York, in the Kuwaiti desert, Saturday, Jan. 4, 2003. American troop reinforcements come to Kuwait daily in the biggest military buildup in the region since the Gulf War--but it's hard to tell. Reporters have been forbidden from entering the Kuwaiti base to film or interview the arriving troops. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
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Toward FREEDOM
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